


Subdural Hematoma

by anna_chronistic



Series: Autopsy [5]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: 19th Century Medicine, Canon Era, Ghosts, Post Barricades, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 05:04:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21247913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anna_chronistic/pseuds/anna_chronistic
Summary: Joly's ghost reads his own autopsy report.





	Subdural Hematoma

Shortly after starting medical school, Joly was intent on being autopsied upon his death, should he inevitably die of some disease. That way, scientists could make advances in finding a cure for the disease that killed him.

It was the 7th of June, 1832, and Joly was indeed dead, but things were not what they seemed.

That day, Joly's ghost had decided to wander Earth doing what most people (except possibly the gothic Romantic) might have deemed strange. Instead of moseying around the Latin Quarter, Joly was at the morgue.

"You certainly are something else, Jolllly" Bossuet's ghost said laughing.

"What is the point?" Graintaire's ghost asked. "You are dead, so you will never be sick again."

"That seems like a splendid idea," said Jehan's ghost.

"Who would have thought that one could read their own autopsy report?" Joly's ghost said giddily.

Joly was surprised to see one of his fellow medical students writing the report. His name was Gâteaux, Joly remembered. He attended a few anatomy classes with him and eventually became a coroner. He often joined other students in joking about Joly's hypochondria, unwarranted nervousness, and general eccentricity. He had always told Joly that he would never die of a disease. But now Gâteaux was in a much more solemn mood. Joly spied on him as he wrote the basic information about the case.

_decedent's name: Matthieu Joly_

Joly felt lucky that his body was even discovered and brought to the morgue. It was highly likely that a good fraction of those who died at the barricades would never be identified, especially if they were from a poorer background.

_sex: male_  
_age: 18-24_

The coroner got that wrong. He was in fact 27 at the time of his death. Joly wondered how many other things the coroner might misidentify.

_height: 1.55 meters_  
_weight: 47 kilograms_

Was he really that short?

_hair: blonde_  
_eyes: brown_

Well at least that was right.

_cause of death: gunshot_  
_manner of death: homicide_

And that.

_Rigor mortis is present in the face and neck. There is a gunshot entry wound at the right supraorbital margin of the frontal bone, just at the right eyebrow. The exit wound is at the back of the head, indicating that the gunshot was at close range._

Joly did not remember getting shot point blank in the face. He remembered jumping off the rooftop trying to rescue Bossuet from the incoming gunfire, but being too late. And then the national guardsman coming closer and closer...

_Death would have occurred instantly, as there are no signs of aspiration of blood._

At least he didn't have the consumption at the time of his death.

_A subdural hematoma in the brain from a close range shot is what ultimately caused the brain death of the decedent, causing him to expire._

It turned out that Gâteaux was right after all: Joly would never die of a disease. Unless getting shot in the face counts as a disease. And Joly could indeed confirm that getting shot in the face was not a disease (even though "subdural hematoma" sounded like the worst disease east of the prime meridian).

"I told you so, Joly," the coroner said, shedding a tear that fell on the autopsy report paper before he put the file in a cabinet.

Joly's ghost sighed.


End file.
